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Ab initio RNA folding

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Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 27 (2015) 233102 (26pp)

doi:10.1088/0953-8984/27/23/233102

Topical Review

Ab initio RNA folding Tristan Cragnolini1,3 , Philippe Derreumaux1,2 and Samuela Pasquali1 1

Laboratoire de Biochimie Th´eorique UPR 9080 CNRS, Universit´e Paris Diderot, Sorbonne, Paris Cit´e, IBPC 13 rue Pierre et Marie Curie, 75005 Paris, France 2 Institut Universitaire de France, Boulevard Saint-Michel, 75005 Paris, France E-mail: [email protected] Received 30 December 2014, revised 18 March 2015 Accepted for publication 24 March 2015 Published 20 May 2015 Abstract

RNA molecules are essential cellular machines performing a wide variety of functions for which a specific three-dimensional structure is required. Over the last several years, the experimental determination of RNA structures through x-ray crystallography and NMR seems to have reached a plateau in the number of structures resolved each year, but as more and more RNA sequences are being discovered, the need for structure prediction tools to complement experimental data is strong. Theoretical approaches to RNA folding have been developed since the late nineties, when the first algorithms for secondary structure prediction appeared. Over the last 10 years a number of prediction methods for 3D structures have been developed, first based on bioinformatics and data-mining, and more recently based on a coarse-grained physical representation of the systems. In this review we are going to present the challenges of RNA structure prediction and the main ideas behind bioinformatic approaches and physics-based approaches. We will focus on the description of the more recent physics-based phenomenological models and on how they are built to include the specificity of the interactions of RNA bases, whose role is critical in folding. Through examples from different models, we will point out the strengths of physics-based approaches, which are able not only to predict equilibrium structures, but also to investigate dynamical and thermodynamical behavior, and the open challenges to include more key interactions ruling RNA folding. Keywords: RNA, coarse-grained models, force field (Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal)

structures revealed that the catalytic activity in the ribosome was carried by RNA, and not the associated proteins [1, 2]. Many more ribozymes have been identified. The RNase P is necessary for the maturation of tRNA, while intron splicing is catalyzed by a protein-RNA complex, the spliceosome [3]. Other ribozymes play a role in metabolic pathways, such as the glucosamine-6-phosphate (glmS) ribozyme, regulating the translation of the protein catalyzing the production of glmS [4]. There is also growing interest in the use of RNA for nanotechnology, with the creation of self-assembling systems such as artificial nanorings [5], nanocages [6], nanoscale scaffolds [7, 8], and other nanostructures [9]. More recently, riboswitches have been identified. Those sequences, usually present in the 5’ untranslated region of genes, adopt a specific

1. Introduction

Over the last 15 years it has been recognized that RNAs play a wide range of functions besides their well-known roles of genetic information carrier (mRNA) and amino acid recruiter (tRNA): microRNA (miRNA) are short sequences regulating genes in the post-transcriptional process, the small interference RNA (RNAi) acts on the gene silencing mechanism, ribozymes are mid-sized (often less than 100 nucleotides) molecules with catalytic properties, and ribosomal RNA constitutes the ribosome together with proteins and can be as large as several thousand nucleotides. The publication of high-resolution x-ray 3

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© 2015 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK

J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 27 (2015) 233102

Topical Review

fold in the presence or absence of a ligand. The folding of the riboswitch sequence will then regulate the expression of the associated gene. Riboswitches have been identified for purine bases, adenine and guanine, for amino acids, notably tryptophan, as well as organic compounds, such as fluoride. RNA is also a prime candidate for being a key molecule in the emergence of life on earth [10]. Like proteins, the functionality of these molecules depends crucially on their equilibrium structures and their dynamical behavior [11, 12], with distinct active conformations biologically active under different conditions [13]. This poses the problem of understanding RNA folding, which is why and how a specific sequence adopts a specific tertiary structure. The ENCODE project showed that a large number of nonprotein-coding RNA transcripts were produced, most of them with no previously recognized roles [14]. With the explosion of sequencing data, with nearly 200 millions entries contributed to GenBank over the last 30 years, and most DNA being detected as ‘non-coding’, therefore possibly containing the information to synthesize RNAs, structure prediction from sequence is an urgent matter. High resolution experimental techniques for determining three-dimensional structures, such as x-ray crystallography and NMR, are challenging as is shown by the small number of resolved structures in the Nucleic Acids Data Bank (NDB) and by the scarcity of structures with substantially different architectures. Low-resolution techniques, such as SAXS and Cryo-EM, allow for easier access to the raw data, but require extensive modeling to propose a well-resolved structure. 1.1. RNA structural organization

Before entering the details of RNA folding predictions it is useful to outline the different levels of complexity that are involved. RNA, just like DNA, benefits from sequence complementarity, with A pairing with U and G pairing with C. If we have strands with perfect complementary sequences, the structure of the molecule is a perfect helix (for RNA an A-form). In this case predicting the fold of the molecule is rather trivial as the characteristics of the helix (rise, pitch, ...) are well known. But RNA sequences almost never allow for base complementarity along the whole sequence. RNAs are most often single stranded molecules that have sequences incompatible with the formation of long double helices. Nonetheless they can have short portions of complementary sequences giving rise to short helices separated by single stranded regions. Portions of the sequence close by tend to form helices and give rise to hairpins, with a helical stem and a terminating loop of variable size. Helices and single stranded regions arrange in space with the possible formation of base pairs external to helices. Often these contacts exhibit noncanonical pairings, that is, base pairs other than AU or CG, and involve all sides of the base [15]. If for proteins the definition of secondary and tertiary structure comes unambiguously from backbone hydrogen bonds, for RNA the definition is more delicate because base pairing occurs both at intermediate length scales with hairpins, and at large length scales with bonds holding together already

Figure 1. Top: schematic representation of base-pairing organization to give nested structures and hairpins, and non-nested structures resulting in pseudoknots and other tertiary interactions. Bottom: 2D and 3D structure of the HDV ribozyme (PDB code 1DRZ). The bottom graph shows the intricate base-pairing connections forming the various helices (color coded).

formed structures. We adopt the following definition: two base pairs I ◦ J, H ◦ K, are called nested if I

Ab initio RNA folding.

RNA molecules are essential cellular machines performing a wide variety of functions for which a specific three-dimensional structure is required. Ove...
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